Rascal has a stressful life.

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Clearly I don't spoil my cat enough. I brought in his urine to run during a physiology lab. Since that bout of what I thought was constipation. Well his dipstick was all kinds of fun colors. He was positive for white blood cells, red blood cells and trace protein. The teacher was so excited, cause we were scheduled to do urine under the microscope and she was sure there'd be crystals or bacteria.

Nope, neither, just the blood. A few bladder cells. So how did he get blood in his urine? The pee was yellow, all the cells were intact, so he wasn't actually bleeding. My teacher believes this to be a stress induced bladder inflammation ( a.k.a idiopathic cystitis) and I need to reduce his stress and retest in a week. stare

Anyway, I was talking with Cowboy's physiotherapist about this. And SHE said, since Rascal's specific gravity was on the low end of normal, we could actually start fluid therapy early, and she said 90% of the cats she treats will actually DRINK the fluid (hey it's salty, and cats like salt right?) So I might not even HAVE to give it sub cutaneously. Ima talk to my teacher about that today. She had mentioned doing it or even just talking a bag home to have on hand.  

[Krissim Klaw]

I've never heard of having them drink the fluid. It is generally so easy to give subcutaneous fluids. Picasso started to look forward to his because he realized he felt better afterward.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

Krissim Klaw

I've never heard of having them drink the fluid. It is generally so easy to give subcutaneous fluids. Picasso started to look forward to his because he realized he felt better afterward.

aawww, that's so cute!!! Well I think I'll try. Not with a whole 100ml. Maybe just put like 15-20ml, see if he drinks it, if he does, add another 20-50ml's. But I gotta be sure he'll drink it all. I can't be wasting it, or having the dog come along and drink it unbeknownst to me

And ya, subQ is pretty simple, with their loose skin, I can't imagine it bothering him at all. Just the getting him to hold still which is why I figure go for it when he's asleep. He'll just think I'm petting him lol.

He just drank close to 25ml. I poured it in his water dish and he drank a bit. I think he stopped cause when the bowl is close to empty (and 25ml is not much in that big bowl) he doesn't like to drink cause he has to put his hole face in. So I put it in a shallow bowl, and he drank a bit more. He didn't finish the 25ml though, and he's suppose to get 100ml a day. I dunno if it's okay to space it out, cause maybe I could get him to drink 25 in the am, 25 in the evening. Or if it needs to be given in boluses. I guess I'll talk to my vet about that tomorrow. I might try to finish off by giving him the other 25 subQ tonight.  

[Gabrielle_AnimalLuver]

First paragraph I'm totally copy pasting from my post on Savage's thread lol.

I just did a subq fluid therapy on him. First time, not including last night which was a failure sept that I got him to drink half of it lol. Anyway, I hesitate on the puncture which of course hurts more, but once I'm in he's oblivious as to what's happening. It's good practice causes chances are in a few years I'll have to do this. I want to put it off though cause I'm worried it I do it more than just this week, like if I start him on it now when his specific gravity is still not bad and creatinine is just a bit high. Well, by the time he really needs it he might come to hate it. He might see me coming with the bag and run. My teacher says it's like dialysis though, it flushes the kidneys out and does a world of good.

Anyway, I know he doesn't have "long" hair, but I was wishing it was shorter. Cause I'd go slow cause I couldn't see WHERE the skin was, I didn't wana go in too fast. I suppose I could always trim the hair and try to do it in that spot all the time. But I'm grabbing him when I find him sleeping, so that could be in any position.

You know sadly, he gave me much more of a fuss when I tried giving him stuff for his teeth. It's easier to poke him with a needle and stand there with the needle in his skin pouring liquid in him. Then to open his mouth enough to get a pea sized amount of teeth cleaner.